If you saw my post about thee book "1001 movies you must see before you die". You'll know that I am atempting to watch all 1001 movies. This is my review of Sunrise (movie #32)
Sunrise
Along with Wings, Sunrise won Best Picture that year. They got it for "production" and "unique and artistic production" respectively. Now does this movie deserve this prestigious award? Well I do believe so. Here's some things said in the book that I would wholeheartedly agree with, which would make this a great movie for it's time.
Most notable in the use of sound effects, pushing silent cinema one step closer to the talkie area
The most striking aspect of Sunrise is its camera work. Working with a pair of cinematographers, Charles Rosher and Karl Struss, Murnau borrowed from his own experience in the German Expressionist movement as well as from the pastoral portraits of the Dutch masters, particulary Jan Vermeer. Linked with graceful and inventive camera movements and accented with in-camera tricks (such as multiple exposures), each scene of Sunrise looks like a masterful still photograph.
These are some of the things (although not limited to) that I would agree that this movie does really well. For it's time sound effects in movies was very new at the time. Today that might not seem very special but for the time it was a luxury (also only having watched silent movies for a couple of days it sure is nice).
The other quote is about the look of the movie and how every scene looks like a masterful still photograph and it truly does. Looking at that movie compared to the other ones you can truly notice a difference. Obviously the older ones are gonna look worse, but the ones released around the same time doesn't compare.
This along with The Docks of New York, is my favorite movie so far. The story is simple but it works, each scene looks amazing and having the sound effects is refreshing.
Score: 8/10
Cheers!
swedishwb